Snow White and the Just King
by Simply Ella
Summary: Set during the Golden Age of Narnia. A Narnian version of Snow White. Rated T just to be safe.


This is a Narnian version of the fairy tale Snow White. The name Eirawen is pronounced Eye-ra-when, it means Snow-White in Welsh.

Disclaimer: I don't own either Snow White or The Chronicles of Narnia.

*****

Once upon a time, in mid winter, when the snowflakes were falling from the sky, The Queen of Archenland sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle.

A few drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful, that she thought, _If only I had a child with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as this frame._

Soon afterward she had a little daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Eirawen, which means Snow-White.

Not long after the princess was born, however, her mother died.

All of Archenland mourned the death of their beloved queen.

The King married again when Eirawen was not quite a year old, he married a duchess who was extremely beautiful, but she was just as vain as she was beautiful.

The queen had a mirror, which she stood in front of every morning, and asked:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who in this land is fairest of all?

And the mirror always said:

You, my queen, are fairest of all.

And then she knew for certain that no one in the world was more beautiful than she.

Now Eirawen grew up, and when she was seven years old, she was so beautiful, that she surpassed even the queen herself.

Now when the queen asked her mirror:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who in this land is fairest of all?

The mirror said:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.  
But little Eirawen is still  
A thousand times fairer than you.

When the queen heard the mirror say this, she became sick with envy, and from then on, she hated Eirawen. Whenever she looked at her, she thought that Eirawen was to blame that she was no longer the most beautiful woman in the land.

The queen let her jealousy get the better of her and one day she summoned a huntsman and said to him, "Take Eirawen out into the woods to a remote spot, and stab her to death. As proof that she is dead bring her heart back to me so that I have proof that she is dead."

The huntsman took Eirawen into the woods. When he took out his hunting knife to stab her, she began to cry, and begged eagerly that he might spare her life, promising to run away into the woods and never return.

The huntsman took pity on her because she was so beautiful, and was relieved decided not to kill her. As he was walking away from the little girl a wild he came across a wild boar. He killed it, cut out its heart and gave it to the queen as proof of Eirawen's death.

The child made it all the way to Narnia; the trip took her a long time and was very difficult (I won't bore you with all the details of her journey, so our tale will pick up again when she finds refuge in the Western Wood).

One day when she was walking around the woods she came to a little house. The house belonged to seven dwarfs. They were working in a mine, and not at home.

Eirawen went inside (she had never been told not to go into someone's home without being invited). There was a little table with seven little plates, seven little spoons, seven little knives and forks, seven little mugs, and against the wall there were seven little beds.

Eirawen was starving (for food had been scarce on her journey), so she helped herself to a little bit of bread and a few bites of vegetables from the kitchen and a few drops of wine.

Because she was so tired, she wanted to lie down and go to sleep. She tried each of the seven little beds, one after the other, but none felt right until she came to the seventh one, and she lay down in it and fell asleep.

When night came, the seven dwarfs returned home from the work and saw someone had been in their house.

They found Eirawen lying in one of the beds, fast asleep.

The seven dwarfs all came running, and they cried out with amazement. They fetched their seven candles in order to get a better look at the girl.

"Oh my! By the Mane!" they cried. "She is so beautiful!" They liked her very much. They did not wake her up, but let her lie there in the bed.

When Eirawen woke up, they asked her who she was and how she had found her way to their house. She told them how her step-mother had tried to kill her, how the huntsman had spared her life, how she had run away to Narnia finally coming to their house. The dwarfs pitied her and said, "If you will keep house for us, and cook, sew, make beds, wash, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay here, and you'll have everything that you want.

We come home in the evening, and supper must be ready by then, but we spend the days digging for gold in the mine. You will be alone then. Watch out for the queen, and do not let anyone in."

The girl lived happily with the dwarves for many years.

The queen, wanting to make sure that she was still the most beautiful in the world, one day asked her mirror:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who is fairest of all?

The mirror answered once again:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.  
But Eirawen in the Western Woods  
Is a thousand times fairer than you.

It startled the queen to hear this (not to mention she was furious), and she knew that she had been deceived, that the huntsman had not killed Eirawen.

She knew that no humans lived in the Western Woods of Narnia. She began to plan immediately how she might kill her, because she would have no peace until the mirror once again said that she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

She disguised herself as an old peddler woman and colored her face, Eirawen would not recognize her and went to the dwarf's house.

Knocking on the door she called out, "Open up. Open up. I'm the old peddler woman with good wares for sale."

Eirawen peered out the window cautiously, "What do you have?"

"Bodice laces, dear child," said the old woman, and held one up. "Would you like this one?"

"Oh, yes," said Eirawen, thinking, that the old woman meant well and was of no harm (she also welcomed the sight of another human, she loved the dwarves and all of the other creatures, but it was nice to see another human).

She unbolted the door and let the woman in.

"You are not laced up properly," said the old woman. "Come here, I'll do it better."

Eirawen stood before her, and she took hold of the laces and pulled them so tight that Eirawen could not breathe, and she fell down as if she were dead.

Then the evil queen was satisfied, and she went away.

*****

Nightfall soon came, and the seven dwarfs returned home.

They were horrified to find Eirawen lying on the ground as if she were dead. They lifted her up and saw that she was laced up too tightly. They cut the bodice laces in two, and then she could breathe, and she came back to life.

"It must have been the queen who tried to kill you," they said. "Take care and do not let anyone in again."

When the queen was back at the palace she asked her mirror:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who is fairest of all?

The mirror answered once again:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.  
But Eirawen with the seven dwarfs  
Is a thousand times fairer than you.

The evil queen was horrified, because she knew that Eirawen had not died.

Then for an entire day and a night she planned how she might catch her. She made a poisoned comb, disguised herself differently, and journeyed back to Narnia.

She knocked on the door, but Eirawen called out from inside the house, "I am not allowed to let anyone in."

Then she pulled out the comb, and when Eirawen saw how it glistened, and noted that the woman was a complete stranger (so she reasoned that it couldn't be the queen) she opened the door, and bought the comb from her.

"Come, let me comb your hair," said the peddler woman. She had barely stuck the comb into Eirawen's hair, before the girl fell down as if she were dead.

"That will keep you lying there," said the queen. And she went home satisfied.

The dwarfs came home just in time. They saw what had happened and pulled the poisoned comb from her hair. Eirawen opened her eyes and came back to life.

She promised the dwarfs that she wouldn't let anyone in again.

*****

When the queen back at her palace stepped before her mirror and asked:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who is fairest of all?

The mirror answered:

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.  
But Little Eirawen with the seven dwarfs  
Is a thousand times fairer than you.

When the queen heard this, she shook and trembled with anger, "Eirawen will die, if it costs me my life!" She declared.

Then she went into her most secret room -- no one else knew of it-- and she made a poisoned, poisoned apple. It was red and beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. Then she disguised herself as a peasant woman, went to the dwarfs' house and knocked on the door.

Eirawen peeped out and said, "I'm not allowed to let anyone in. The dwarfs have forbidden it most severely."

"If you don't want to, I can't force you," said the peasant woman. "I am selling these apples, and I will give you one to taste."

"No, I can't accept anything. The dwarfs don't want me to." Eirawen insisted.

"If you are afraid, then I will cut the apple in two and eat half of it."

Now the apple had been so skillfully made that only the red half was poisoned (which of course was the half that the queen offered the girl.

When Eirawen saw that the peasant woman was eating part of the apple, her desire for it grew stronger, so she finally let the woman hand her the other half through the window.

She bit into it, but she barely had the bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.

*****

The queen was happy, went home, and asked her mirror:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who is fairest of all?

And it answered:

You, my queen, are fairest of all.

"Now I'll have some peace," she said, "because once again I'm the most beautiful woman in the world. Eirawen will remain dead this time."

That evening the dwarfs returned home from the mines. Eirawen was lying on the floor, and she was dead. They loosened her laces and looked in her hair for something poisonous, but nothing helped. They could not bring her back to life.

They laid her on a table, and all seven sat next to her and cried and cried for three days.

They were going to bury her, but she did not look at all like a dead person, and she still had beautiful red cheeks.

They had a glass coffin made for her, and laid her inside, so that she could be seen easily. They wrote her name and her ancestry on it in gold letters, and one of them always stayed at home and kept watch over her.

Eirawen lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay. Her skin was still as white as snow and her lips as red as blood, her hair as black as ebony wood and if she had been able to open her eyes, they still would have been as black as ebony too.

She lay there as if she were asleep.

*****

In the great city of Cair Paravel lived two kings and two queens: High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just and Queen Lucy the Valiant.

The four had ruled the land of Narnia for ten years after the defeat of the White Witch. Narnia had prospered under their reign and had enjoyed a time of peace.

Every year, as had been the custom since the four had become rulers, each king and queen would visit the part of Narnia they were to govern over in order to see how their subject were fairing and if anything needed to be done for them.

So King Edmund visited the Western Woods.

One day King Edmund was riding through the woods and came to the dwarfs' house, Mr. Tumnus (who was one of his advisors) had arranged for him to stay with the dwarfs for the night.

When he came into their parlor and saw Eirawen lying there in a glass coffin, illuminated so beautifully by seven little candles, he could not get enough of her beauty.

King Edmund was not one usually drawn to someone just because of their beauty, he valued intelligence and common sense most of all, but there was just something about this young woman that just drew him to her.

He knew that this girl was not dead; she didn't seem to be decaying.

He asked the dwarfs if he could take the girl with him so that he could take her to Cair Paravel so that some of his sister Lucy's cordial could be used on her, and she could be woken up from her slumber.

The dwarves agreed, for they wanted more than anything for their beloved Eirawen to be alive and well once more.

King Edmund –and his trusted advisors that journeyed with him--picked up the coffin in order to transport it to Cair Paravel. They were almost out of the house when one of the fauns tripped on the rug, this was thought to be a terrible thing because he was in charge of carrying the front of the casket where the poor girl's head was. Those around him quickly lost their grip on the coffin as well.

The coffin fell to the floor with a loud _thud._

All in the room stopped dead in their tracks, the dwarfs especially held their breaths.

What if the fall really killed the princess?

There would be no hope for her if she were_ truly_ dead.

All of a sudden there was coughing.

The terrible piece of apple that she had bitten off came out of her throat, and Eirawen came back to life.

The dwarves rejoiced, for their beloved Eirawen was alive once more, the dwarves told her all that had happened and she was grateful to the king for saving her life.

King Edmund took Princess Eirawen back with him to meet his royal brother and sisters. The Just King and the princess enjoyed each other's company very much, so the King Edmund asked Princess Eirawen to be his bride. She of course agreed.

The two planned a wedding and all of Narnia and Archenland was invited—even Eirawen's evil step-mother was invited.

The morning of the wedding the evil queen stepped before the mirror and said:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,  
Who in this land is fairest of all?  
The mirror answered:  
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.  
But the young queen  
Is a thousand times fairer than you.

She was horrified to hear this(for she did not know that it was Eirawen who was to be King Edmund's bride) , and so overtaken with fear that she could not say anything. Still, her jealousy drove her to go to the wedding and see the young queen.

When she arrived she saw that it was Eirawen, the evil queen was shocked to see her step-daughter alive and well, as well as upset that her plans to kill the girl had failed once again.

King Edmund ordered (upon much thought and the prompting of his new bride) that a pair of iron shoes be put into the fire until they glowed, and that they be given to the evil queen to put them on and dance in them. Her feet were terribly burned, and she could not stop until she had danced herself to death.

After the evil queen had died the country of Archenland became a great nation again and had an unshakeable alliance with Narnia.

King Edmund and Queen Eirawen were able to have a happy marriage and all of Narnia prospered until the four kings and queens mysteriously vanished one day.

AN: Please review and let me know what you thought! The sequel to this, "The Stag" is now up!


End file.
